Drama Aside, Just How Good Is Manti Te'o?

INDIANAPOLIS — Manti Te'o won't have any problem distinguishing himself from the roughly 300 other prospects who will roll through the annual meat market that is the NFL scouting combine. Sometimes that can be an issue amid a scene where players are outfitted in non-descript jerseys identifying them as, say, WR07 or OL26.

Not for Te'o, the catfished Notre Dame linebacker. Everybody knows his name.

Too bad it's not just about football. The Te'o baggage is overloaded with the humiliating saga that involved apparently getting duped by a guy posing as a fake girlfriend, then carrying on with the lie about "her death" after learning of the hoax.

"Guys come into the process with 10 hurdles to clear. Well, he's got an 11th hurdle," an NFL general manager, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told USA TODAY Sports shortly after landing in Indianapolis on Wednesday.

"Now you come to the combine, and you spend all of your time with teams talking about those things, rather than the football aspects."